CHAPTER. 161: THE HERO OF HUMANITY (PART 3)

I never expected for things to be perfect in Draliz, in fact, I expected some kind of mess. It wasn’t because of not trusting Ceylon, so much so as just the fact that I had killed the Hero of Flames only to be vanished by the keeper of order; if word spread then there were bound to be heroes vying for Draliz. However, even if I expected some form of conflict, I never expected this.

Malz fainted, the outsides of Vaelith completely torn and destroyed, and Ceylon… bleeding and missing an arm. The mere sight made me beyond angry, and there was only one person responsible for this; there could only be a single one responsible.

The person whose damn arm In was holding and the damn person that was about to kill Malz and Ceylon.

[Hero of Humans. Tier: SS]

A hero, the Hero of Humans. There was also another hero here, the Heroine of Water, but as far as I could tell she had had no play in Ceylon’s current condition. In fact, she seemed to be picking herself up from some bad injuries when I passed by her.

“So, any last words?” I asked, restraining myself.

“You are…” the Hero of Humans blinked, before his eyes narrowed. “The Heroine of Frost, but something is wrong with you. Are you perchance corrupted?”

I shook my head. “It seems you haven’t heard me, I said:” I squeezed, breaking his arm. “I’ll fucking kill you.”

At that the Hero of Humans groaned. “So you dare get in my way too?”

I ignored him and kicked, breaking through all his bones and sending him flying. I couldn’t believe the audacity he had to even make conversation with me. But it didn’t matter, I was going to fucking kill him. However, just as I was about to teleport in his direction, I stopped myself and looked towards Ceylon, who was now unconscious, before calling.

“Lily! Can you take care of their injuries?”

For a moment, there was no response, but soon the purple haired girl that had been my companion for the past week appeared and gave me a nod before taking my two friends away, and just like that I was alone. I didn’t want to destroy Vaelith or the surroundings further, but I was going to make a damn exception for this.

I grabbed my dagger to take out my spear, when someone teleported near me. However, it wasn’t the Hero of Humans, but the Heroine of Water instead.

“What?”

“I think you’re going to need help,” she said, now completely healed and with a rather casual tone. “That man’s ability allows him to access the skills of fallen heroes. Which means that, you alone stand no chance as a mere SS Tier hero.”

I shook my head. “I don’t need help, nor do I want your help. This is personal now.”

“Is that so?” she pondered. “You don’t seem particularly strong, perhaps I came all the way here for no reason.”

I ignored the woman’s comment, she seemed eccentric like all the other heroes, and as for why she was here? I didn’t care. Not right now, all I cared about was one thing, and one thing only. And that was killing the trash that had almost killed Ceylon. I turned my gaze as I sensed a skill going off.

Then I lifted my arm and the Hero of Humans appeared before me, punching.

“[Realmbreaker]!”

I caught his attack with the palm of my hand as a shockwave blew past me, freezing it was trivial. It was all so damn trivial. The Hero of Humans blinked, and I clenched holding into his fist before pulling and⁠— headbutting.

I broke his nose as I spoke coldly.

“I do not know why you wanted to kill Ceylon, but I don’t care. All I know is that I’ll make you pay for it⁠—”

And I kneed, breaking through his ribs before pulling back my free arm and muttering, coating my fist in a blue aura.

“[Blessing of the Ice God] and [Gift of Frost].”

Then I punched as an explosion of ice went off in the surroundings, and along with it the Hero of Humans exploded into a frozen bloodbath. And as I stared at it, I continued.

“⁠— which is why, now that I’ve used up your revival skill, I’ll give you a very painful death.”

Following my words, the Heroine of Water blinked, her calm expression shifting to one of surprise. However, once more, I didn’t care about any of that. No, only one thing mattered, and that was killing this bastard.

* * * * *

The Heroine of Water was surprised. No, it was better to say she was shocked. Shocked that the Heroine of Frost had taken a skill and completely and utterly brushed it off. As far as she was aware the frost element was able to freeze attacks, but to freeze an SS Tier attack?

Wouldn’t that require the Heroine of Frost to be SSS Tier?

Yet…

[Heroine of Frost. Tier: SS]

That didn’t seem to be the case at all, yet what had unfolded before her very eyes suggested that. Unless that had been the product of a skill? However, if that was the case then why was the Heroine of Frost so confident in triumphing against the Hero of Humans? Ignoring whether the heroine was aware of who the Hero of Humans was or not, the fact that she, the Heroine of Water, had informed her of the man’s skill should have been enough to understand his power.

Yet, in spite of knowing that, she didn’t seem to care. And matter of fact, seemed extremely confident in killing the hero.

In fact, he literally died just now… she added in her mind. At the work of some kind of… skill. It was weird to even doubt whether what she had seen was a skill; she had seen Arcane Magic before, but even then she wasn’t able to tell.

That said, she was seriously doubtful about whether the Heroine of Frost had actually killed the Hero of Humans, and that was for one simple reason:

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He has too many skills at his disposal.

And there was also the fact that there was no sign of his revival skill triggering⁠—

[The Hero of Humanity has died, rally to his aid!]

“It seems I spoke too soon…” The Heroine of Water swallowed, before looking towards Arc who was frowning. “So, you really did kill him.”

“That’s what I said,” she scoffed, answering in annoyance. “What’s with this notification anyway?”

The Heroine of Water took a breath, calming whatever weird emotions she felt towards the Heroine of Frost, and then, she began to explain.

“That notification is what makes the Hero of Humans so terrifying. As the Hero of Humanity, all the human race rests on his shoulders, which means that when he is in danger all of humanity will contribute a small portion of their power,” she said simply.

“Aha.”

“And when this process happens, he becomes comparable to an SSS Tier being,” she finished.

Truth was, she wasn’t particularly confident in taking on the Hero of Humans; while she was confident in being able to take away his first life. This part was, in her mind, going to be incredibly difficult. And for good reason.

Fighting an SSS Tier being is… She closed her eyes, remembering the past. Difficult.

In the end, her plan had been to engage in a battle of endurance until the temporary buff ran out, but it seemed that the Heroine of Frost had other plans because she didn’t so much as react.

“I see. Alright.”

And with that, the Heroine of Frost reached for the dagger at her waist; a dagger with so little mana that the Heroine of Water couldn’t even sense. But at the same time it reminded her of…

One of the items I took from the Forgotten Places…

Though she had no way to confirm it because, the Hero of Humans had finished reviving.

[The Hero of Humanity rises to the challenge, now stronger than ever! May the evil that threatens humanity be vanquished!]

And with those words, the sky went black as the Hero of Humans revived, and before the Heroine of Frost could finish using her dagger, there was a flash before she went flying.

The Heroine of Water felt… weird. She had thought that the Heroine of Frost would be defeated, but now she had a feeling that maybe…

She stood a chance against the SSS Tier Hero of Humans.

* * * * *

The Hero of Humans was angry, but also in disbelief. He hadn’t known much about the Heroine of Frost other than she should’ve stood no chance against him. However, he did know she was supposed to be in the Forgotten Places right now; and that she should’ve been dead because of it.

But against all odds, she was here, and she was strong. Much stronger than he had anticipated; and worst of all? Even if he killed her, he would not be able to access her skills. He could just tell. Something was different about her, and something was weird; very weird. And while at first he was keen on finding out, now he simply wanted to do one thing and one thing only.

To kill her.

And it wasn’t because of sudden hatred, but he could just tell that the grudge that the heroine held over her companion being hurt was something that could not be resolved through anything but death. At least not in the short term, and given how his revival skill had been used, every other solution had been thrown out off the window right then and there.

“To the death it is!” he growled as he summoned a spear of light, and lunged it across the landscape. “[Deathray]!”

With a flash of light, the spear flew across the landscape, illuminating everything in its path as if it were lightning. For a moment, the whole world went white before it struck the place it was aiming at, and then with a flash, a large beacon of light exploded into the sky as the earth was torn asunder.

He didn’t care if the place was torn asunder, right now he was acting in self defense against the Heroine of Frost that had killed him, meaning that Ruvaar would be safe; meaning that he could go all out! And that’s what he was doing right now.

[Flash Speed].

He blurred as he sent the Scepter of Past Visions into his Storage Ring, and then he immediately took out a sword. However, it wasn’t any sword but rather, it was an SS Tier item. More specifically, one belonging to the Hero of Smithing, and it was called the [Vanquisher of Humans] for it dealt triple damage towards human beings.

It had once been used against him, but now, it was his preferred tool to kill heroes. And more than anything, he could turn it into an SSS Tier weapon simply by using the skill of the now defunct hero.

“[Blessing of the Smithing God],” he muttered.

It was a skill that brought any weapon to the Tier of the wielder, and considering he had used his revival skill, the weapon was now SSS Tier. And it was what he was planning on using to vanquish the damned Heroine of Frost.

In a single moment, he arrived at the deserted area of the explosion while it was still ongoing, and there he saw her. An armor of ice that was covering her body was falling apart, and this was the perfect opportunity.

“Perish!”

And the Heroine of Frostraised a blue spear with white ornaments of wings and an elongated white sword tip, it looked incredibly fancy but⁠— it didn’t matter!

The Hero of Humans swung with all his strength, hitting the shaft of the spear as the attack was blocked. Now, any SS Tier weapon would’ve shattered from the hit, but instead, Arc simply went flying away, hitting the forest with an explosion. At this point, they were far from Vaelith, so he wouldn’t be taking innocent lives.

With another dash, he appeared before Arc who had the same unamused and dead expression as before; her expressions didn’t change much, and that made him angrier as he swung. Arc, of course merely blocked.

“So you return from the Forgotten Places just to get in my way, huh?!”

He used a skill this time as a light flashed, Arc blocked again but this time part of her shoulder was taken as blood splattered. [Deadliest Edge] was a skill that extended the edge of the sword past its physical manifestation, and it was what he was going to use to kill Arc!

“You think you’ll be able to kill me?!”

He slashed again, and made the woman bleed once more.

“You are but a mere hero of an element, one of many. Meanwhile, I am the one and only Hero of Humans, the hero of humanity!” he screamed, feeling nothing more than frustration. “You are lucky I came in time to save your pathetic friends from the Heroine of Water!”

He kicked her away as she stumbled back, though all she had was a frown present on her face. Then he slashed again, pushing her back.

“You are damn lucky that after I kill you, I’ll only kill that pathetic dragon and that girl!”

“Lucky?” she asked, evidently annoyed.

The Hero of Humans drew back and cracked her a smile.

“I’m merciful enough to not destroy Draliz for this.”

Then he attacked again, and this time the Heroine of Frost raised a hand and⁠— caught the blade along with it as blood splattered. However, contrary to expectations, the blade barely cut into her skin as she growled.

“No, you’re the lucky one that I can’t use my strongest skill to kill you already,” she squeezed as the blade made a weird sound, all while she glared at him. “But don’t worry, I just wanted to see how strong you were, I’ll get serious now.”

With those words, the sword⁠— shattered.

The Hero of Humans blinked and then he screamed, pulling his fist back.

“[Reconstruction]!” the sword reformed in his hand and he swung again. “And⁠— [Blinking Blade of Destruction]!”

It was a skill belonging to the Hero of Swords, a man he had killed a very long time ago, and while he had only used it a handful of times in history this time was perfect for it. After all, the skill had a good property that few skills had⁠—

Being able to cut through any target of lesser rank.

And the sword hit her spear as a loud explosion went off, but once more⁠— the spear stopped it completely unscathed as the heroine simply smiled savagely at his surprised expression. Then, she flicked his sword away with her spear and muttered.

“[Stasis].”

And the Hero of Humans froze as she smiled, glee evident.

“You don’t seem to understand it do you? Even if you are SSS Tier, you cannot compare to the things I fought in the Forgotten Places. Nor does your strength compare to the one the Hero of Arlas possesses in spite of sharing the same Tier,” she said coldly as his mind reeled.

She let go of her spear, planting it on the ground, for him to appraise as his eyes widened.

“In short, you never stood a chance. So how about we begin?”

She grabbed her spear back as she cocked it back, preparing to impale him as she continued.

“Your execution that is.”

And she thrust as the Hero of Humans felt horror for the first time in many centuries, all while he screamed at himself to move.